(shì): room

(shì) is a Chinese character meaning “room.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #708 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, roof. Its radical form (roof) appears in many related characters such as (, guest, customer), (jiā, home, family), (, it).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. room

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀至 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounbàn gōng shìoffice3
nounshí yàn shìlaboratory5
nounwò shìbedroom5
nounyù shìbathroom6
nounjiào shìclassroom2

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dì xià shìbasement
shì yǒuroommate
gōng zuò shìstudio
huì yì shìmeeting room
shǒu shù shìoperating room
jí zhěn shìemergency room
gēng yī shìchange room
xiū xī shìlobby
yǎn bō shìbroadcasting studio
huáng shìroyal family
chǔ cáng shìstoreroom
shì nèiindoor
mì shìa room for keeping sth hidden
kòng zhì shìcontrol room
qǐ jū shìliving room
100
Total compounds
10
As first character
89
As last character
1
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 10 as the first character, 89 as the last, and 1 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

yàn
0.626132,273 co-occurrences
bàn
0.603159,353 co-occurrences
0.53818,357 co-occurrences
shí
0.536132,174 co-occurrences
gōng
0.468287,741 co-occurrences
0.4597,276 co-occurrences
gōng
0.451151,086 co-occurrences
huáng
0.44354,012 co-occurrences
zōng
0.43858,890 co-occurrences
yīng
0.4314,428 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

bù ān qí shìHSK 3+

(idiom) (of a married woman) to be unfaithful; to have extramarital affairs

phrase
dēngtángrùshìHSK 4+

to break into a house; to attain a high level in one's learning

phrase
shìnèi shèjìHSK 5+

interior design

noun
tóngshìcāogēHSK 7+

to fight one another; to fight each other who is in the same group; to have internal conflict or strife

phrase
wēnshì xiàoyìngHSK 4+

greenhouse effect

noun
yǐnlángrùshìHSK 6+

to bring trouble to oneself by inviting an enemy

phrase
zhī lán zhī shìHSK 7+

lit. a room with irises and orchids (idiom); fig. in wealthy and pleasant company

phrase
zhù shì dào móuHSK 7+

lit. ask passers-by how to build one's house (idiom); fig. to have no idea what to do; without a clue

phrase

Showing 8 of 9 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

会议已经预订好了,下午两点开始使用。

Huìyìshì yǐjīng yùdìng hǎo le, xiàwǔ liǎng diǎn kāishǐ shǐyòng.

The meeting room has been reserved and will be available starting at 2 PM.

公視新聞網 PnnFeb 2026

...当道?为何他们选择非典型工作?【新闻实验

. . . dāng dào ? wéi hé tā men xuǎn zé fēi diǎn xíng gōng zuò ? xīn wén shí yàn shì

... In power? Why do they choose atypical jobs? 【News Lab】

99 健康网Feb 2026

发明洗澡吃橙子的人是个天才?揭秘“浴水果”背后的科学与乐趣

fā míng xǐ zǎo chī chéng zǐ de rén shì gè tiān cái ? jiē mì yù shì shuǐ guǒ bèi hòu de kē xué yǔ lè qù

The man who invented the bath and eating oranges was a genius? Uncover the science and fun behind "Bathroom Fruit"

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

推行6岁入学制须备足师资教 叶祥均:避免政策“U转”劳民伤财

tuī háng suì rù xué zhì xū bèi zú shī zī jiào shì xié xiáng jūn bì miǎn zhèng cè zhuǎn láo mín shāng cái

Implementing the age-6 enrollment system requires sufficient teachers and classrooms. Ye Xiangjun: Avoid policy U-turns that waste resources and burden the public.

It之家Feb 2026

...级十角兽公司;曝腾讯关闭天美蒙特利尔工作...

. . . jí shí jiǎo shòu gōng sī pù téng xùn guān bì tiān měi méng tè lì ěr gōng zuò shì . . .

...Level 10 Unicorn Company; Tencent Shuts Down TiMi Montreal Studio...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

Anthropic指控中國AI實驗竊取Claude數據

zhǐ kòng zhōng 國 實 驗 shì 竊 qǔ 數 據

Anthropic Accuses Chinese AI Lab of Stealing Claude Data

Tatoeba

您昨天为什么离开教

Nín zuótiān wèishénme líkāi jiàoshì?

Why did you leave the classroom yesterday?

Tatoeba

你知道我父亲是否还在办公吗?

Nǐ zhīdào wǒ fùqīn shìfǒu hái zài bàngōngshì ma?

Do you know if my father is still in the office?

Tatoeba

汤姆的教在哪里?

Tāngmǔ de jiàoshì zài nǎlǐ?

Where is Tom's classroom?

Tatoeba

我必须带我的儿子到你的办公吗?

Wǒ bìxū dài wǒ de érzi dào nǐ de bàngōngshì ma?

Do I have to bring my son to your office?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced shì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 室 (shì) mean in Chinese?
室 (shì) primarily means "room." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #708 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 室 and 窒?
室 (shì) and 窒 (zhì) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 宀 vs 穴 (same 至 component).
How many strokes does 室 have?
室 is written with 9 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 室?
The radical associated with 室 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 室?
室 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 至 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀至 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 室?
Common words with 室 include: 办公室 (bàn gōng shì, "office"); 实验室 (shí yàn shì, "laboratory"); 卧室 (wò shì, "bedroom"); 地下室 (dì xià shì, "basement"); 浴室 (yù shì, "bathroom"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 室 (shì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation shì: 师 (teacher), 十 (ten), 时 (time, hour), 识 (to know, knowledge), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 室 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 室 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.